Memories
by Morgie-Chan
Summary: "Sometimes memories and promises are the only thing that keeps you moving when times are hard." He looked at her oddly, "Y'know promises are made to be broken." Noodle never realized how correct those words were until now.
1. Ramen

Once upon a time is a very incorrect way to start a story. There is always a time before that, so you can't help but wonder how the character got into their situation in the first place. For Noodle, however, there was no before. So her story could actually start with such a silly phrase as 'once upon a time'.

So, once upon a time, Noodle woke up in a box. A giant Fed Ex box with walls that were cracked and old, and much taller than it was wide. She had no name, no memories, and no way to escape. So when Noodle heard people chattering in a strange tongue she didn't know, and the top of her crate being ripped off so sunlight spilled into her emerald eyes she reacted as most people would. She screamed her little lungs out, throwing precise punches at her attackers.

There were three. A scrawny, tall one that looked like a skeloton with blue hair, one with greasy hair and a bottle hanging from one of his bony hands, and another who was giant in size and whose white eyes could almost see into her soul. Her odds were good, and she clutched her guitar even tighter.

"No, no, no, no, luv, we ain't gonna hurt ya! No, no, no, no, no!" one screamed, before she smashed her guitar on his face and ran between anothers legs, trying to get away.

"Wha' the devil is that?" one sneered, who reeked of a high school gym locker, and whose voice dripped with a cruel sound. She dove behind their couch and out of his reaching grip.

"It's jus' a kid Muds, you're scarin' 'im." The person whose face was still red from a blow to the face from her guitar was trying to peek his head behind the couch.

"D's right man."

"Well you git 'im out then face-ache!" the smelly one stormed off, another following behind trying to convince him not to throw the child out to the zombies.

"D, jus' try and get 'im out from behind there okay?" the large man said to the other person who was left in the room with Noodle.

After trying to convince her with gentle words the man, who prefers to be called 2D and not 'face-ache', thank you very much, moved the couch and poked his head back so he could look at her.

She paused in the middle of her attack, blinking and him.

"Ao," she said in awe, blinking at the odd colour of his hair.

"Eh?" he asked, tipping his head to the side like a confused puppy, making his bright, blue hair move with his head and causing her to give a high-pitched giggle.

"Ao! Ao! Ao!" she said, crawling up to him and reaching to pet his head.

"Tha' my hair, luv."

After five minutes of her combing out his hair with her tiny fingers and repeating the word one in a type of song, 2D grew even more sympathetic for the small girl, who had just been shipped to her house in a Fed Ex crate. 2D wasn't the brightest star in the sky, the sharpest knife in the drawer, whatever you would like to say. Even he, though, could figure out that it wasn't normal for a young girl to be shipped into the entry way of a house.

"Where are your parents? Your mum? Your dad?" he asked her.

"Nani?" she looked at him oddly. It then struck 2D that she couldn't understand a word that he was saying.

'How am I supposed to do this?' he thought to himself, looking at the small girl who was still running her fingers through his hair and grinning so widely he could see almost all of her sparkling teeth.

"C'mon luv, I bet you're hungry," he stood up and held out a giant hand to her. She didn't understand for a second, but then she smiled and held up her own hand to him. The unnamed girl wrapped her hand around three of his fingers, letting him lead her around while she dragged her guitar behind her on the dirt covered carpet.

* * *

2D threw open all of the cupboards and searched through the refrigerator like a detective looking for clues. Just trying to find something a little girl could stomach was a trouble. 'Beer, rum, rum, rum, rum, expired milk, rum, moldy bread, rum, rum... ramen noodles.' He chose the obvious, shaking the package in front of the girls face. "You like noodles, luv?"

"Noodle? Noooooodle! Noodle!" she said, trying to stand on the tips of her dirty converse to reach the carton from his grasp.

He threw them up on the counter, and reached for a glass to boil the water in. "We gotta cook 'em first." The singer filled the glass cup with tap water, before throwing it into the microwave for a few minutes. The girl followed behind him every step and watched his moves with curiosity.

"Wha's your name anyway?" he asked her.

"Noodle!" she answered, throwing her hands up above her head and spinning around. Her helmet fell off and spun on the floor for a few seconds before she picked it up and placed it back on her head again, laughing and grinning. He stared at her blankly the whole time, perplexed by her answer. "Noodle?"

"Hai!"

He sat down on the ground, so he could at least somewhat look her in the eye. "Alright, Noodle," he said while pointing to her, "2D," he said while pointing to himself. He repeated this action a few times before it seemed to click in her mind.

"Too-Dee-San?" she said, pointing to him.

He grinned in response, which made her give another high-pitched giggle in victory.

The timer went off and 2D stood up, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Alright, luv, want some noodles?"

"Noodle!"

* * *

_Authors Note - - - I love Noodle. She like… is an inspiration even though she is just a cartoon character and all. Plus, she's very fun to write about. So I thought, why not just write her whole story? (: I'll tell you, I can't wait to get to phase two though. Anyways, first chapter, all done and over with. I'm not very good at spelling and sentence structure, since I'm still in high school English class. So feel free to message me saying any type of grammar issue or something that didn't make sense that I should revise. Thank you for reading! :)_

_Ao - Blue_

_Nani - What_

_Hai - Yes_

_San - San is a respectful thing to put on the end of someones name in Japan. Others would include 'Kun' and 'Chan', but I think 'San' will be used mostly in this story._


	2. Pikachu

They were fighting. The three were arguing back in forth, paying little attention to the girl that was tugging on all of their shirts. Her nose crinkled and her eyes narrowed, she hated it when they yelled. And they did constantly, they fought over reasons that she didn't get. Just last week Murdoc gave 2D a bloody nose because he wouldn't take out the garbage, and when Russel stepped in to help no one noticed that she took it out for him.

Plain, stupid reasons that she couldn't understand, and even though Noodle barely knew a word of english she somehow knew how stupid they were.

"Gorillaz!" Noodle screamed. That seemed to fit the conversation they were having, and they all turned to her with a look of confusion.

"Gorillazzz," she repeated, carrying out the 'z' while crossing her arms over her chest dramatically.

They paused for a second, almost like they were thinking about it

"Gorillaz," Murdoc smiled, showing his rotting teeth, "Catchy, ae?"

And now they were a band. Noodle played the guitar, Murdoc the bass, Russel the drums, and 2D sang the songs. They were united. A family. And they were only people that Noodle had to look up to.

* * *

Noodle never liked thunderstorms.

Ever.

She was pretty sure it all started when she watched Poltergeist with 2D. You know, the part where Carol Anne got pulled into her closet like a tornado was ripping through her room.

It wasn't like Noodle didn't like scary movies, she adored them actually, but thunder was shaking the windows of Kong Studios while they enjoyed that movie. For some reason, just after that, she had been terrified.

So when lightning flashed and lit up Noodle's new room, she cowered under the blanket. The thunder that followed rumbled so loudly that the sounds of her quiet whimpers could not be heard.

"Russel-San," she said to herself hopefully, throwing the covers on the ground and standing up. She paused at her door, running back to grab her Pikachu stuffed toy to her chest before creeping down the hallways of Kong on her tippy-toes.

Thunder rumbled again, and she buried her face into Pikachu's, before reaching for the doorknob to Russel's room and flinging open the door.

"Russel-San! Russel-San!" she squeaked, jumping into his bed and landing on his stomach.

"Oof! Ah, baby girl," he mumbled, and even the sound of his deep voice soothed her a little bit.

"Russel-San, a-" she squealed again, flinging herself backwards as lightning and thunder cracked again.

"Wha's wrong?" he asked, sitting up and switching on a light.

"Gomennasai, a-ano...ano," she couldn't explain this to him, in any way possible, so she just sat cross-legged at the end of his bed, clutching her stuffed animal to her chest.

He sighed, before motioning for her to get under the covers with him. She smiled before quickly climbing in.

"Arigatou gozaimasu Russel-San, eto, oyasumi!"

He mumbled something about not having a clue what she was saying before switching off the light and falling into a deep sleep again, the little girl by his side following quickly behind.

The the last thing she heard was his snoring which drowned out the sound of everything else.

* * *

"Russ! She's gone!" 2D panicked, fumbling to get the door of Russel's room open and stumbling into his room. He stopped; smiling at the sight of a small girl who had her arms wrapped around one of the large mans arms. Russel was awake, apparently not wanting to wake her up, and his gaze said one thing; 'Speak about this and I will kill you slowly.' 2D slowly backed out of the room and shut the door behind him as quietly as he could. It seems like that girl brings out everybodys soft side.

"Ae, Muds," 2D said quietly, as the bassist passed him.

The blue-haired singer ducked a bottle of rum that the bassist happened to be holding.

"Shudup face-ache!" Murdoc bellowed, before he got hit in the face with a Pikachu toy.

Noodle stood in the doorway, an annoyed look on her face and her hair sticking up in all directions. She crossed the hallway, picking up the stuffed animal while Murdoc stared at her, confused.

"Baka," Noodle said to him, before shutting the door again.

* * *

A/N : Ain't that cute? :)) Anyways, I would like to say thank you to all the people that reviewed/faved/alerted. It makes me so happy to find that people enjoy this as much as I do writing it! Anyways, I will stick to this and try to keep posting chapters as much as possible. Anyways, this was a really short chapter... it took me like an hour to write. The next one will be way longer, I promise! Again, thanks for reading:D

Gomennesai – I'm sorry

Ano – Um

Arigatou gozaimasu – Thank you very much

eto – Um

Oyasumi – Good night

Baka - Idiot


	3. Hello Kitty Band Aids

I think it was apparent the Gorillaz that Noodle wasn't like most girls her age. She didn't enjoy wearing dresses with ruffles, she didn't enjoy taking off wearing her signature helmet to wear ribbons in her hair, and she didn't enjoy playing with dolls. She enjoyed Pokémon, Powerpuff Girls, wearing giant coats and a helmet that was too big for her head and, most importantly, she loved playing the guitar.

I think there were other incidents, however, that showed Noodle wasn't just ordinary.

They were taking a break from the recording studio after long hours of Murdoc yelling about perfection and Noodle falling asleep while standing up. Russel was eating a bag of Cheetos while leaning out the window and watching Noodle play in the dirt right outside of Kong. She shoveled it up with a giant kitchen spoon, before carefully setting it into the pile next to her. The little girl sang the only lyrics in English she knew to herself, which also happened to be the lyrics of their song 19-2000.

"Here we go! Get the coo'. Get the coo' shoeshane," she sang, plunging the spoon into the dirt again before dumping it into the growing pile.

The sight was ordinary, but something then caused Russel to jump out of his seat yelling; "Shit!"

Up the hill of Kong, a giant shape slowly appeared. Its fur was matted and coated in dirt, and its demon-like red eyes were already fixed on its prey. A zombie appeared, slowly walking up the steep hill.

It didn't take a few seconds before the sounds of Russel running, and then falling down the stairs rumbled throughout the house. He just happened to bump into Murdoc who let out a long line of curses before Russel yelled, "Noodle! Zombie! Cheetos!"

Now, I think it's unsafe to say that Murdoc doesn't have a heart. Yes, he doesn't have a soul because he sold that, but a heart is what really counts.

The rum bottle Murdoc had been holding dropped out of his hand and shattered to the floor beneath his boots before he bolted with Russel down more stairs toward the door.

It's hard to say who the faster runner was in this case: Murdoc who had been smoking and drinking almost non-stop for years, or Russel who was giant in size.

Almost to the entrance, they ran into the singer and when Russel screamed the same words to him he also dropped what he had been doing; a perfectly good-looking sandwich fell to the floor in this case.

2D was a much faster runner than all of them, and he was the first out of the door. "Noods! Noods? Where are ya?" he said, holding a butter knife in both hands, as if that was his weapon.

"N-na," Murdoc huffed, before his brows narrowed in confusion, "the fook..."

"Konichiwa Murdoc-San, 2D-San, Russel-San," Noodle said cheerfully, smiling at them as she dumped another spoonful of dirt into her pile.

"G-g-g-get away from 'em Noods! I'll protect ya!" 2D said, holding the butter knife with trembling fingers.

That deserved a slap in the back of the head from Murdoc.

"Idiot! The thing's knocked out! See?" he kicked it with the toe of his boot, and it gave a snort although it didn't move.

Noodle's gaze turned to it when it snorted, and she got up quickly, pulling on Russel's shirt, "Hayuku! Hayuku Russel-San!"

"Baby girl, you know I don't understand what you're saying,"

"Zombie! Hayuku!" she screeched again, before 2D gave a rather girlish scream.

"Bloody fook, it's alive!" Murdoc yelled, grabbing 2D's butter knife out of his hands and throwing it at the beast as it stood up. The weapon bounced off its body and tumbled helplessly to the ground beneth the zombies feet.

"My knife! Now ya've done it Muds, we're gonna die!" 2D cried.

Russel grabbed onto one of Noodle's sleeves, pulling her toward him as the band took a few, slow steps backward in harmony. The zombie stood up, its arms dangling limply at its sides. It turned to the four suddenly, its scarlet eyes burning with a look of hatred.

Noodle then tore herself from Russels grip, although with screams of protest from him, and ran toward the zombie at full speed before jumping in the air.

If there was ever an Olympic sport for tiny, short girls jumping really high, Noodle would have won that day. She almost walked in the air, giving the zombie a giant boot in the face, before stepping on top of his head and landing on the ground on all fours.

The zombie landed on the ground, not even a foot away from her, before she stood up and dusted herself off. "Noodle," she said.

The other three stood in shock, before Noodle lifted her gaze from the ground, emerald eyes glassy.

"I-tai," she said, her throat clogged with tears. She touched her fingertips to her knees, smearing the blood as tears rolled down her cheeks.

They all stared at her for a painful second. Noodle had never gotten hurt before, and it was a miracle seeming as how she would run down the hallways for hours on end and never loose her step, not even once. And it was more painful seeming as how they actually knew what she was saying for once.

"She's hart," 2D said, looking as if he was about to cry himself.

"Itai!" Noodle cried again, covering her face with her sleeves.

Russel bent down next to her, taking her helmet off to wipe away tears. "You okay, baby girl?"

"G-genki desu."

They all walked back up the hill to Kong, Russel carrying Noodle's helmet under one arm. 2D and Murdoc both took one of Noodles hands and she swung their arms back and forth, giving them both small smiles.

They all kind of changed that day. Russel decided to teach himself Japanese in his free time, and could often be seen carrying around a large book with a confused look on his face. 2D always carried a knife in his back pocket. Murdoc found that he shouldn't say anything to piss Noodle off. And, of course, Noodle found that no matter the situation that her family would be there for her. Plus, she found where 2D hid the Hello Kitty band-aids.

* * *

Authors Note : This one took a while to write, just because I couldn't think of a way to end it. This story came to me in my dream, although it was a bit different, you couldn't change the zombies back by throwing cupcakes at them... Anyways, I hope you enjoyed! Don't furrget to review! [Or else?] :DD

Konichiwa – Hello

San – As I've explained before, a proper ending to use at the end of someones name in Japan. It's sort of respectful, I believe.

Hayuku – Hurry

Itai! - Ouch! [Ow!]

Genki Desu - I'm fine


	4. Nightmares

"T-t-tur?" Noodle struggled to repeat it.

"No, luv, tour! We're goin' on our first tour as a band!" Murdoc explained to the small girl.

It had been months. Months and months of hard work and tons of video shooting to get to this point. The word was out about Gorillaz, and their number of fans were growing by the second. It was now time to get on the road, and give the fans what they wanted.

"Give 'em what they want! Tha bastards want music, and we'll give 'em at!" Murdoc said rather enthusiastically, giving his snort-like laugh afterward.

"Et sounds great, Muds. But, eh, we can't all live in the Geep."

Smack!

"Dullard, I ain't finished yet!" Murdoc sneered at 2D, who rubbed the back of his head shyly," Anyways, they got this whole place figured out for us! Bigger than the Winnie, an' with a working loo an' errething!"

"Whoa!" Noodle said, grinning widely. She turned and started chattering away to 2D, who nodded and pretended like he could understand the girl while giving her a child-like smile.

Russel thought about this for a second, "Muds, so when does this thing start anyways? Have they planned any dates for us yet?"

Murdoc stopped a second, before running a hand through his greasy, black locks. "Well, eh, they already got errething figured out. The bus is 'ere in an hour."

2D and Russel stopped, and turned their gaze slowly to Murdoc. "Wha'?" they both yelled in union, causing Murdoc's mismatched eyes to suddenly narrow in anger.

"Well dun just stand there and yell at me! Get packin!" He snapped back at them.

There was a scramble which left only Noodle and Murdoc left in the room. "Yay tur!" she clapped her hands together.

"Powerpuff Princess... go get ready," Murdoc shooed her, which only caused her to grin back at him.

Now, Noodle had learned a little bit of English in her time at Kong. It was mostly the basics that a toddler would know, sentences that didn't really make sense and with only basic words making them up. English just didn't seem to stick in her head very well. "There are too many amazing things that need to be discovered. We shouldn't worry about those things and rather learn things that we will cherish for the rest of our life," she had said once, which Russel had translated from Japanese to English.

"Arright Rainbow Bright, how about this?" Murdoc bent down a little, so that he could see her dark eyes looking up at him, "Go. Get. Russel."

"Hai Murdoc-San!" Noodle responded, bounding down the hallway happily. There. Now Murdoc had gotten rid of her. Easy enough.

Murdoc flopped down on the couch. Life was hard.

And now his eyelids were feeling heavy. 'A little nap won't do anything...' Murdoc thought to himself. Then he drifted off to sleep, dreaming of things too horrific and confusing to a child's mind, that they should not be written down.

* * *

"Bye Muds! See ya when we get back!"

"Huh?" Murdoc sat up, opening his eyes to find the three other band members waving at him, then walking out the front door. A long line of curse words escaped his lips as he ran across the room to grab his purse-like bag and throw a hat over his head.

"Fookin bastards," he grumbled to himself, walking in a face pace to keep up with the other band members. Russel gave Murdoc an odd look as he stumbled into the tour bus with them, mumbling under his breath with hands clenched into fists.

"C'mon Muds, it ain't our fault that you fell asleep," the large man said.

"Just joke! Laugh like hyena!" Noodle added with a grin as she lifted her gaze from her hand-held game.

Murdoc slouched down in a seat, turning his head to the driver of the bus. He was a small, skinny boy who looked barely old enough to drive, with a terrified look on his face. "C'mon aleady! Start up the fookin vehicle!"

The driver fixed his glasses before turning the key to start the bus. The machine rumbled to life before slowly moving down the long hill of Kong.

"Yay tur!"

* * *

_Darkness. _

_The blackness was almost swallowing her up. _

_Where were the walls? The floor? _

_Wait, a sound, what was that? _

_Footsteps. The echoed around her._

_And for some reason she feared them._

_"Now," a voice boomed, "Are you ready?"_

_Light. A door was opened and a tall, sinister silhouette appeared. _

_She stumbled to her feet. She had to get out. She had to escape this place!_

_"Wait! No please!" _

_Her eyes widened at what was held out to her; a gun._

_Salty tears spilled from the corners of her eyes. "I-I don't want to."_

_"Suit yourself."_

_"Wait! Don't leave me here!" she begged as the door as closed. _

_It left her in the pitch black again._

_And she could hear the thunder rumbling from the ceiling._

_No protection, no one was there for her. _

_A scream escaped her raw throat as she grabbed fistfuls of her own hair and fell to the ground._

Noodle sat up with a start, breathing heavy and eyes wide. She placed her hands on her face, gasping for air as she covered her eyes with tiny hands. Where was she? This wasn't the bus! Panic rose in her throat before she turned her wide eyes next to her to find 2D's sleeping form.

'Just another dream,' she thought to herself in relief. They were on the plane to North America, there was nothing to fear. But she didn't want to go back to sleep. No, that was wrong, she _couldn't_ go back to sleep. Another dream. Another nightmare. It was like that movie she and 2D had watched, the one where the girl couldn't sleep because a man would kill her in her dreams. Her circumstances were a little different, of course, but pretending would probably help her keep up.

"Yosh," she whispered to herself, "Yatte mimashou!"

So Noodle stayed up the rest of the night, playing Pokemon on her Game Boy, trying to braid her hair, and poking 2D's face while he was napping. The time seemed to drag on and on before she could tell the plane was dropping.

"2D-san!" she exclaimed, shaking his shoulder until he woke up.

"Wha' luv?" he asked her, yawning sleepily.

"Done!" she smiled at him. In a few minutes they were both squished against the window, giggling and trying to get a glimpse of the ground below them.

The plane eventually landed and both Russel and Murdoc were also woken up by the little girl, who was chattering away in her native tongue.

The sirens outside, however, stopped them all to turn to the windows, which were letting the red flashing lights into the plane. Noodle's eyes widened, as she stumbled over to Russel. "Wha' happen?"

"I dunno Noodle Girl. Muds, what's goin' on? Why are the cops 'ere?"

"I'll give 'em a piece of my mind, fookin bastards," Murdoc grumbled, walking up the aisle to the door before opening it. He stood there a few seconds, eyes staring into the flashing red lights, before slowly bringing his hands up above his head.

"Murdoc-San!" Noodle yelled, trying to squeeze past Russel and to his side.

"Jus' stay there luv. Uncle Mudsy has gotten 'imself into some big fookin trouble." A sideways grin appeared on his face, almost as if he was enjoying this.

Authors Note : This one took a while for me to get up, sorry x3 I was pretty busy, I've had like... around 5 parties in the past few weeks, and school has been pretty hard on me, so I haven't had any time. I finally had time tonight to finish this and post it up. So I hope you guys like it! (: Remember to review!

Yosh, yatte mimashou - Alright, I will try


End file.
